Solid-state image pickup apparatus

1. A solid-state image pickup apparatus comprising: a semiconductor substrate having a first main surface and a second main surface; a plurality of image pickup areas checker-wise arranged in first rows-and-columns in the semiconductor substrate, the image pickup areas being separated from one another and each having second rows and columns of unit pixels, each of the unit pixels including a photoelectric conversion part and a signal scanning circuit part; an image pickup device optical system configured to form object images on said plurality of image pickup areas on the first main surface of the semiconductor substrate; a driving circuit area disposed in the semiconductor substrate, between adjacent ones of said plurality of image pickup areas in a row direction, the driving circuit area having a driving circuit formed to drive the signal scanning circuit part; a plurality of analog-to-digital converters arranged between adjacent ones of the said plurality of image pickup areas in a column direction, to digitize signals obtained from said plurality of image pickup areas; a plurality of digital signal processing circuit areas arranged between the adjacent ones of said plurality of image pickup areas in the column direction, and having a plurality of signal processing circuits that perform signal processing upon input of digital signals produced as a result of the conversion performed by the analog-to-digital converters in said plurality of analog-to-digital conversion circuit areas; an interconnect layer formed on the second main surface of the semiconductor substrate on an opposite side to a side on which the image pickup device optical system is formed; and a plurality of electrode pads disposed on a portion of the second main surface between the adjacent ones of said plurality of image pickup areas in the column direction, used to output signals processed in said plurality of digital signal processing circuit areas and receive power source voltages and/or drive pulse signals to be supplied to said plurality of image pickup areas, wherein said plurality of image pickup areas are formed in the semiconductor substrate to be separate from one another by distances sufficient to prevent object images formed by corresponding ones of the image pickup device optical systems from overlapping one another, said plurality of electrode pads are formed on the same surface of the semiconductor substrate on which the interconnect layer is formed, and incident light is emitted onto the image pickup area formed in the first main surface of the semiconductor substrate, which is opposite to the second main surface of the semiconductor substrate on which the interconnection layer is formed.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said plurality of image pickup areas are four image pickup areas arranged in two rows and two columns.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image pickup device optical system includes optical image formation lenses that form object images to correspond to said plurality of image pickup areas.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image pickup device optical system includes a plurality of spectral filters disposed over said plurality of image pickup areas, respectively, and said plurality of image pickup areas are exposed to light transmitted through said plurality of spectral filters and thereby receive different spectrum light of the object image.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image pickup device optical system includes a plurality of microlenses and antireflection films disposed over said plurality of image pickup areas, respectively.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising: a plurality of first electrode pads disposed between the adjacent ones of said plurality of image pickup areas in the column direction, said plurality of first electrode pads being formed on the same surface of the semiconductor substrate on which the interconnect layer is formed.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6 , further comprising: a plurality of second electrode pads disposed between the adjacent ones of said plurality of image pickup areas in the row direction, said plurality of second electrode pads being formed on the same surface of the semiconductor substrate on which the interconnect layer is formed.